Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for April 10, 2016

The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, Raphael, 1515. fresco, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Saul was mean, and Saul was scary. He persecuted the early Christians with all his strength. But when Jesus confronted Saul in a blinding vision on the road to Damascus, everything changed. Matthew told us that Jesus said, “just as you did to the least of these … you did it to me.” Jesus tells Saul that by persecuting those who follow Jesus, he was persecuting Jesus. When Saul gets this – with help from a rather wary Ananias – his hatred for Christ and Christians falls away. Saul becomes Paul, who will go on to take the infant church to the world.

Psalm: Psalm 30

Today’s Psalm offers praise and thanksgiving to God in a specific context: It expresses the singer’s gratitude for having been restored to good health and rescued from an immediate threat to life. When God’s face is hidden from us, we live in fear; but God’s restorative mercy turns our wailing into dancing and makes our hearts sing. Think about this Psalm in the context of today’s other readings: Paul’s conversion turns his enmity to new life in Christ. Peter’s threefold denial of Jesus is wiped away as Jesus calls Peter three times to love him and to feed Christ’s sheep.

Second Reading: Revelation 5:11-14

All the people of all the world’s nations, and all the animals of land and air and ocean, too, gather around the throne to worship the Lamb in this beautiful, metaphorical vision. In contrast with the bloody, frightening images of dragons and war-horses that fill the pages of Revelation, Christ, the king, is not pictured as a mighty emperor or a roaring lion but as a vulnerable lamb: a symbol of the Passover, a slaughtered victim that is now raised and glorified for us.

Gospel: John 21:1-19

In a narrative similar to Luke’s account of Jesus meeting two disciples on the road to Emmaus, John tells us that the seven disciples in their fishing boat didn’t recognize Jesus at first. Only when the stranger on the beach shows them how to fill their nets to bulging with a heavy catch does Peter recognize Jesus. Then Jesus, recalling the awful night when Peter denied him three times, asks three times whether Peter loves him, then commands him three times to feed Jesus’ lambs and sheep.